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User blog:Mr.Robbo/Kannin
Draft description of Kannin The small slum seemed like any other shanty town with its corrigated metal rooves and winding, constricted, alleyways, the only difference was that this slum was perfectly square, forced and strangled into conforming with Kannin's strict grid system. Xetra stood under a piece of blue tarpaulin, her hair and clothes already soaked through by the monsoon, surveying the scene. She already knew there was something wrong; even in this weather the slum was usually bustling with a life far more electrifying than any of the clean, clinical, planned streets and buildings in the city. Everything was just left there - clothes, bicycles, personal belongings - as if everyone had left in a hurry. She felt a twinge of hope as she heard splashing from around the corner; that hope quickly failed when she was met by a man in military khaki. She noted that he had a gun slung over his shoulder. He waved his arm at her. He had to shout to he heard over the rain hammering down on the tin rooves. "NCS! You can't be here!" "Why!?" she shouted back. "This area's been cleared for construction!" She fumbled inside her sodden jacket and brought out a laminated plastic sheet, handing it to him. "Where is everyone!?" The man read the sheet carefully. The Social Relations Sequence had allowed her access for humanitarian reasons. "Come with me!" he said to her, handing back the sheet. The man walked past her and gestured for her to follow. Before she followed him, something caught Xetra's eye; a drawer, which had quickly filled up with water due to the monsoon, had a plush rabbit toy floating around in it. Instinctively, she picked up the toy and hurried after the man. Leaving the slum, Xetra was immediately in another world. Tall apartments and skyscrapers, all conforming to just a few building designs gave the city a regular, organised look; the street itself was wide with a canal running down the middle and a monorail running overhead; just a few people hurried around in the treacherous weather. The man shouted something to her. She heard the honk of a horn and a vehicle wizzed past her, she had only just jumped out of the way in time. She found that concerning. Cars were banned in Kannin except for government use (something about pollution?), and she had seen a lot of cars recently. Scampering up a stairway to the platform of the overhead monorail, both of them wincing under the torrent of the the monsoon, her hair now completely pasted onto her face, she asked, "What did you say!?" "I said the NRS say they're planning to build big transparent rooves over the roads one day! It'll be much nicer in the monsoon!" Typical Sassanid Persian attitude; 'the government will make everything better.' They entered a monorail carriage, and it was finally warm, dry and quiet. Naturally the carriage was nearly full, as people tried to avoid the rain, but at least the city's transport network seemed to be coping okay. "The people in the slum have been moved to temporary accomodation by the National Constabulary Sequence... the NCS, that is." "Yes, I know," she replied, "Couldn't they have just stayed where they were?" She was squeezing out the plush rabbit toy she had picked up in the slums. The man's facial expression was one of incredulity. "Of course not! It's antisocial." Xetra's look told him what she thought of that. The carriage stopped and they ran back out into the monsoon rain. The monsoon was strange; the rain was warm but it hammered down so hard it felt like a shower of nails; both of them were drenched again in seconds. "In here!" he shouted, gesturing toward a cuboid, warehouse-like building with windows running along the top. They entered the building; attendants had to push the doors closed against the draught from outside. The man stood there, dripping wet, while Xetra surveyed the scene. Everyone from the slum had were lying on bunk beds, which were organised in rows along the room. The whole area was lit by giant lamps suspended high under the ceiling. "Molly!" shouted a small child, dressed in what looked like pyjamas. Xetra looked at the plush bunny in her hands, as if she was seeing it for the first time or had forgotten it was there. The eager, brown-haired girl snatched the small toy from Xetra's hands and squeezed it against her chest, making water drip from the bottoms of its legs. "Thank you!" said the child chherfully, if slightly shy. "You're welcome..." replied Xetra absent-mindedly. Her voice had taken on that cold, calculating tone that it always did when she had urgent business to attend to. Chop and change as you see fit. Category:Blog posts